I picked up a great, cheap book at Sam Flax (though I think they are out of it now) about the films of Paul Verhoeven.  It's part of Taschen's series of film books and unlike their Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon book that will set you back a cool grand, this fairly exhaustive look at Paul Verhoeven's career is an affordable paperback.  It breaks down every one of Verhoeven's films from his early days in Dutch cinema to his conquest of and eventual drop out from the Hollywood machine.  It ends with notes about Black Book.  

Verhoeven's story is pretty fascinating, and his struggles with films that always skated (and sometimes crossed) the line between an R and an X rating make a lot of sense when you look back at where he started.  Sometimes I need a guidebook through film history that's a little more focused than something like '500 Films to See Before You Die" and this was a great option.  It inspired me to revisit Robocop, Starship Troopers, and Basic Instinct and it set me off on a quest to find some of his earlier work starting with the cruel but sadistically entertaining Flesh + Blood.